IIT Madras launches great quantitative research lab

IIT Madras has launched a new research lab focused on Quantitative Finance.

AlphaGrep Securities, a quantitative trading and investment firm, is providing CSR Funding of Rs. 5.65 Crore towards the establishment of this lab.

Exploratory Research

The ‘AlphaGrep Quantitative Research Lab’ will conduct Exploratory Research Projects in the areas of AI for quantitative finance, including research in financial markets and its microstructure, quantitative investment management and quantitative risk management, among other areas, say sources from IIT Madras.

MoU

An MoU (Memorandum-of-Understanding) was signed in this connection. It was signed between Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras and Mr. Mohit Mutreja, Chairman and Managing Director, AlphaGrep Securities.

The pact was signed on 10 October 2024 towards in the presence of Prof. B. Ravindran, Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras, and other stakeholders.

Director of IIT Madras

Director of IIT Madras Prof V Kamakoti highlighted about the need for such research centers.

Three decades before, the financial institutions were predominantly run by their legal group, the next decade by their finance/audit group and currently by the Information Technology group.

The time is ripe now to look at how AI can be used for effective and efficient conduct of business of these institutions. The proposed lab will be precisely addressing this issue, said director of IIT Madras.

Collaboration

Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras welcomed the collaboration.

‘Given how much work there remains to be done in bringing AI to the world of finance, a program that focuses on exploratory research is exactly what we think will push us forward. ‘

We are very happy to be supported by AlphaGrep Securities in this regard and look forward to building this partnership further, said Prof Ashwin of IIT Madras.

Key outcomes

The Key Outcomes envisaged from this Research Centre include

Ø Exploratory Projects on applying frontier AI techniques to quantitative finance

Ø Training Programs for different stakeholders in this space

Ø Focused courses for students on AI for quantitative finance

Ø Development of data sets and other resources to enable research

Innovation

Mr. Mohit Mutreja, Chairman and Managing Director, AlphaGrep Securities, said, AlphaGrep is proud to announce its collaboration with the IITM with the inauguration of AlphaGrep Quantitative Research Lab as part of the Department of Data Science & AI at IIT Madras.

This strategic initiative marks a significant step towards fostering innovation in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Quantitative Finance, he said.

The lab aims to nurture collaboration between esteemed faculty members of IIT Madras, and staff at AlphaGrep, and provide advanced resources and mentorship to IIT Madras students, enabling ground breaking research and development in these cutting-edge fields, he said.

Together, we are committed to shaping the future of technology and nurturing the next generation of leaders in quantitative research, he said.

Working in the lab

The Professors who will work in this lab include Prof. Nandan Sudarsanam, Dr. Nirav Bhatt and Dr. Arun Ayyar (Adjunct faculty) from the Department of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras.

Work

Prof. B. Ravindran, Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras spoke on the work that would take place at the new center.

The quant community has been at the forefront of adoption of new technologies in their models, he said.

With the rapid advances in AI in the past two years, it has become imperative to look at how the AI tools can help with quantitative research and how we can use these tools in a responsible fashion, said Prof Ravindran of IIT Madras.

The new lab will work with the industry in advancing the understanding and responsible adoption of AI in quant models, he said.

Focus area

Human resource training in areas of AI for quantitative finance through different programs will be a focus area of this lab. The Centre would also explore the possibilities of developing new courses related to AI for quantitative finance.

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